Troy High School named Best in State in Verizon Innovative App Challenge

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. >> Student teams from Troy High School in Oakland County and Portage Central Middle School in Kalamazoo County were named Michigan winners of the Verizon Innovative App Challenge, a national competition in which students develop a mobile application concept that addresses a need or problem in their local schools or communities.

Now in its second year, the Verizon Innovative App Challenge, selected the best app concepts submitted by student teams across the U.S. and named qualifying teams from one high school and one middle school in each state as Best in State winners. Troy High and Portage Central Middle School teams were chosen from nearly 1,300 teams nationwide who entered the contest. They are two of 80 Best in State teams that will go on to vie for the titles of Best in Region, and ultimately, Best in Nation.

Troy High’s team designed an app that will provide details on food nutritional values to allow people to maker smarter, healthier food choices. The team from Portage Central Middle School designed an app that creates the most safe, fast, energy efficient bus routes to and from schools.

The competition was created by the Verizon Foundation in partnership with the Technology Student Association to encourage students to use technology to help solve local social issues. Student teams from across the nation submitted more than 770 app concepts, which made selecting one winning middle school team and one winning high school team from each state highly competitive. Almost 40 percent of submitted entries were from underserved schools.

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“We saw some fantastic creativity and innovation in the first Innovative App Challenge last year, and this second competition is shaping up to be similarly exciting,” said John Granby, president–Michigan/Indiana/Kentucky Region, Verizon Wireless. “It is delightful to see children as young as sixth graders identifying problems and conceptualizing solutions that can be developed into a usable app.”

Best in State teams are eligible for the next round of the competition, in which Verizon and the Technology Student Association on Feb. 4 will name 24 Best in Region middle and high school team winners from the states in the West, Midwest, South and East regions. Each team will earn a $5,000 cash grant for its school, and faculty advisors of winning teams, along with up to two colleagues, will participate in an online course called “Teaching App Creation with MIT App Inventor,” taught by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab’s Center for Mobile Learning’s app development experts.

On, Feb. 19, the Innovative App Challenge competition’s final phase will conclude with the selection of eight Best in Nation winners, chosen from the pool of 24 Best in Region teams. Best in Nation winning teams will earn their schools an additional $15,000 cash grant to further develop or support a program in science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM subjects. And each team member will receive a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, courtesy of Samsung Telecommunications America. In addition, the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Mobile Learning will provide onsite and virtual training on coding and support using MIT App Inventor to the Best in Nation teams as they develop their apps, and Verizon will help actualize students’ app concepts, making them ready for sharing and distribution. One avenue for students to share their apps will be the Google Play store.

In June, the members of the eight winning teams will be invited to present their apps in person at the 2014 National TSA Conference in Washington, D.C., courtesy of Verizon.

The Best in State teams will soon have access to a self-guided app-development course developed by the MIT Media Lab’s App Inventor team. The course will teach the teams how to take their apps from concept to completed, user-test app, under the direction of each team’s faculty advisor.

The Verizon Foundation is focused on improving teaching and learning, particularly through the use of mobile technologies to support STEM education. Since 2000, the foundation has invested more than $300 million to support education initiatives.

The Technology Student Association is a national organization devoted exclusively to the needs of students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Open to young people enrolled in or who have completed technology education courses, TSA’s membership includes over 190,000 middle and high school students in 2,000 schools spanning 48 states. TSA partners with universities and other organizations to promote a variety of STEM competitions and opportunities for students and teachers. TSA is supported by educators, parents and business leaders who believe in the need or a technologically literate society. From engineers to business managers, our alumni credit TSA with a positive influence in their lives. Visit http://www.tsaweb.org for more information.

The Verizon Foundation is focused on accelerating social change by using the company’s innovative technology to help solve pressing problems in education, healthcare and energy management. Since 2000, the Verizon Foundation has invested more than half a billion dollars to improve the communities where Verizon employees work and live. Verizon’s employees are generous with their donations and their time, having logged more than 6.8 million hours of service to make a positive difference in their communities. For more information about Verizon’s philanthropic work, visit www.verizonfoundation.org; or for regular updates, visit the Foundation on Facebook (www.facebook.com/verizonfoundation) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/verizongiving).